title: "Dangerous relationships": asthma and substance abuse.
abstract: Commonly abused drug are cocaine, marijuana, cigarettes, heroin, and alcohol. The review emphasizes the importance for clinicians to be alert to the possibility of this substance as a precipitating factor for acute asthma. Substance use disorders to characterize illnesses associated with drug use. The use of drugs of abuse increases risk of developing more severe symptoms, higher frequency of exacerbations and having and significant effect on care resources due to clinicians visits and frequent hospital admissions. Abused drug has been shown to accelerate the decline in lung function and to increase numbers of life-threatening asthma attacks, and greater asthma mortality.
authors.affiliation: Smoking Prevention/Cessation Centre, A.O.U, Policlinico-V. Emanuele, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. p.caponnetto@unict.it
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Caponnetto
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Auditore
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alamo
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Campagna
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Demma
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Polosa
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D001249:Asthma / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs